The Sweet Early Soul from Theola Kilgore (1960-1966)

Theola Kilgore (born 1925, Shreveport, Louisiana — died 15 May 2005, Los Angeles, California) was brought up in Oakland, California, and began singing in church. Her first recording, on which she was billed as Theola Kilgord, was as the featured vocalist on 'Look to the Hills' by the Mount Zion Spiritual Choir, released in 1955. While working as a gospel singer, she befriended J. W. Alexander, Sam Cooke's manager who introduced her to singer/producer/writer Ed Townsend; with Townsend, Kilgore cut her first secular recording, an answer to Cooke's 'Chain Gang,' entitled 'The Sound of My Man (Working on a Chain Gang),' on Candix Records, which attracted attention and some sells. She registered her biggest hit with her next record 'The Love of My Man,' an adaptation of 'The Love of God,' originally done by the Soul Stirrers with Johnny "Disco Lady" Taylor on lead vocals. The plaintive, direct ballad released on Serock Records, a subsidiary of Scepter Records, zoomed to #21 Pop and #3 R&B; its success place Kilgore on the chitling circuit and the R&B theater tours where she shared billings with the top names in R&B. Still with Townsend, Theola followed with my personal favorite, 'This Is My Prayer,' on Serock which was just as good, sold well, but failed to surpass or equal the success of its predecessor. Theola & Ed formed KT Records (Kilgore/Townsend) where she released her next singles, none made much noise; later releases on Mercury Records went unnoticed as well. She also recorded some tracks at Stax which remain unreleased. Of her post hit singles, only 'I'll Keep Trying,' and the Northern Soul favorite 'It's Gonna Be Alright,' garnered any significant plays. http://www.answers.com/, http://en.wikipedia.org/. I gathered here as many Theola Kilgore's sides as I was able to find. There are virtually all the aforementioned, though unfortunately I couldn't find 'I'll Keep Trying'. The good news is that, in turn, I got its B-side, 'He's Coming Back to Me'. I also included Theola's fantastic last single 'I Can't Stand It' / 'It's Gonna Be Alright', which was originally released on Mercury, in 1966, plus the flip side of 'This Is My Prayer', 'As Long As You Need Me (Want Me, Love Me)', from 1963. I am sure you are gonna love this as much as I do!!

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